Conventional power distribution systems typically include multiple power sources and storage elements and are known by those of reasonable skill in the art. Despite the relative simplicity and wide acceptance of this conventional power distribution architecture, the conventional architecture suffers from several disadvantages. With few exceptions, unregulated energy sources are incompatible with parallel connection to a common bus. One problem of the conventional approach is that the architecture requires power regulators to interface incompatible sources to the bus. If such unregulated sources such as batteries are connected to the common bus, the unregulated source with the highest voltage will back-feed other sources thereby generating circulating currents. The magnitude of these currents depends on the voltage difference between the various sources and the total resistance of the current path. Because the source and bus resistances are low, the circulating currents will degrade system efficiency and may even damage components and wiring.
Another problem associated with this power system architecture is its susceptibility to single point failures. If the common bus, the load, or the output of a single voltage regulator is shorted, the whole system can be disabled. Still another problem associated with conventional power system architectures is the systems inability to control the power flow. Because there is only one bus that connects all loads and all power sources, this architecture does not allow delivering power to a section of the load from selected sources. The conventional architecture lacks flexibility, i.e., failed elements or bus segments cannot be isolated and disconnected from the system.